The Wisdom of a crowds

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126956.600-cellphones-tap-wisdom-of-the-crowds.html

“DAVID, a Masai herdsman from Kisumu in Kenya, answers a call on his cell phone. After listening to the message, he repeats a short phrase in his Masai dialect. He then listens to another short message, and repeats the new phrase. After 30 minutes, he ends the call, having earned enough for a week's worth of personal cell phone airtime.”

This is an example of how the wisdom of a crowd is greater than the wisdom of an individual person. Txteagle is a service that allows individuals in rural areas to earn airtime and money by performing translation and transcription using their cell phones. This service is based on wisdom of the crowds, translators are sent English words, and if a large number of people return the same translated answer it is accepted into the database. Individuals who are more often correct are paid at a higher rate.